BigCats
BigCats
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08 Aug 2000 AUSTRALIA:
News - Cat film fails to convince biologist.
By PENNY FANNIN, SCIENCE REPORTER.
There's a big, black feline wandering around Kyneton and Channel Nine would have you believe it is a puma. Or maybe a panther.
Last night, the television station screened footage, filmed by an amateur cameraman, of a large cat roaming central Victoria.
It was, they claimed, the best evidence so far that an exotic member of the family Felidae (cats, to you) was prowling the wilds of Victoria. For years there have been reported sightings of pumas or panthers throughout Victoria. They have allegedly been seen around Kyneton and in other parts of country Victoria from the Grampians to Gippsland. Peter Menkhorst, a wildlife biologist with the Department of Natural Resources and Environment, saw Channel Nine's footage some weeks ago and remains unconvinced. Mr Menkhorst said that of the many fauna surveys done in Victoria, none had recorded the presence of cats other than feral domestics.
"There is no hard evidence that there's a strange animal out there. There's a lot of people who think they have seen something strange such as a large cat or a thylacine (Tasmanian tiger) but none of these stories have had any solid, hard evidence associated with them." As well as reported sightings of pumas and panthers, there have been sheep kills that farmers believe can't be attributed to dogs or foxes. But a spokeswoman for the Department of Natural Resources and Environment in Gippsland said extensive DNA testing and examinations of sheep carcasses had revealed no evidence of the animals being killed by a cat of any sort. Yet the legend lives on.
Theories abound on where the big cats might have come from. Some believe they escaped from a circus early last century. Others believe they were US Air Force mascots and were released near the Grampians after World War II.
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05 Aug 2000 AUSTRALIA:
Puma video site secret.
By NATALIE SIKORA.
ONE of Victoria's greatest mysteries possibly may be solved soon. The first images of the fabled Lancefield "puma" which has been haunting Victoria for decades allegedly have been captured on video. In a move to protect the privacy of nearby residents, the remote location where the big black cat was spotted is being kept secret. The puma is believed to have been tracked down following recent reports of mauled sheep.
Two months were spent attempting to film the animal by following the kill sites. A plaster cast of the animal's huge paw was taken in an attempt at identification. The video may be the first evidence to support the existence of an elusive cat-like animal.
Staff at Melbourne Zoo and the Department of Natural Resources and Environment have seen the video. Melbourne Zoo director of conservation and research Peter Temple-Smith yesterday said the video footage was intriguing. He said zoo carnivore experts were intrigued after seeing the footage, but not convinced. He would have expected more evidence from the area, such as faeces, urine or scent markings, claw marks in trees or even more cats.
"It's certainly a black cat, but if you really want to convince a sceptic you have to have more than a video," Mr Temple-Smith, who viewed the video about three weeks ago, said. "The footprints don't match cats we have on the zoo site. "The chap who took the footage seemed genuine. "I think you have to treat all these things with some scepticism."
Thousands of sightings of the creature have been reported over the years. Kyneton Guardian editor Don Gunn said tales of the legendary black feline dated to the 1880s. He said the video was the strongest evidence he had seen of the cat's existence.
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08 Aug 2000 AUSTRALIA:
Zoo officials warn off hunters.
By NEIL WILSON.
ZOO authorities yesterday appealed for hunters not to go after a huge cat in central Victoria after a Ballarat man allegedly captured evidence of the beast on video. The plea from the Melbourne Zoo came as the hills from Malmsbury to Ballarat were alive with speculation on how the big cat could finally be tracked down after generations of sightings. The Herald Sun yesterday spoke to two people who said they had seen the cat - a leopard or panther - within the past month. Each said footage taken in the Ballarat area by big cat enthusiast Steve Temby, shown on Channel Nine last night, showed a smaller cat than the one they had seen.
Melbourne man Allan Griffin said he saw a "jet black" animal, too big to be a feral cat or dog, cross the Western Highway a fortnight ago. And Bendigo roof tiler Doug Steele said he and two workmates had seen a similar animal on a property near Malmsbury about a month ago. The zoo's conser vation and research director, Peter Temple-Smith, does not believe the video is conclusive proof a panther exists. But he is also worried the animal would not have any protection under state law.
"There's a lot of people out there who would see this as a great trophy, some people would go and shoot it without any problem at all," he said. "I wouldn't like to see an animal killed because it has been brought to the attention of the public. I would be very disappointed. The public has to discuss this and make some decisions on what to do with it."
Mr Griffin, 73, said he now believed the story of a friend, a driver for the US Army Air Force during World War II, who told him of the release of smuggled cats in the Grampians by officers who had kept the animals as pets. At dusk on July 22, Mr Griffin was driving towards Melbourne, about 10km west of Beaufort, when he saw an animal bound across the road. "It was a puma no doubt," he said. "When it leapt out I thought it must have been a kangaroo, but there's no doubt it was a cat - a big fellow, jet black."
Mr Steele said he and his workmates had seen a panther about 400m away in a property on Drummond Rd, Malmsbury, and he was certain it could not have been a feral cat. "It was bigger than the animal on television. It was black, like a little panther," he said.
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I live on a remote property on the ninety mile beach, Gippsland Victoria
Our closest neighbour is 3Km away.
We have 1.2 Km of private beach.
There have been many sightings by other locals in our area.
If you are interested I can give you more information. During the holiday season there is usually a dead kangaroo or wallaby every 2 or 3km's on the coast road. Locals believe the cats come down from Mt Hotham during the season for the road toll then return months later. It is also believed the origin of the cats is the RAAF base near here {Sale} The US Airforce soldiers flew mascots directly in during WWII.
Regards J. Browning
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23 Jul 1999 N.Z.: DOC Says wild moggies roaming otaga
By Horrell Regan
The Department of Conservation reckons giant wild moggies are roaming the southern countryside - not mountain lions. English tourists Mark and Deb Greening photographed what they believed was a mountain lion wandering across a paddock in the Lindis Pass last week. DOC Central Otago manager Dave Murphy said yesterday the sighting followed a similar report by an Invercargill man of a large cat-like animal in the Dunstan Ranges, near Cromwell, in August last year.
"I took him seriously because the sighting was obviously spectacular enough for him to report it," Mr Murphy said. Investigations showed recreational hunters had reported seeing large cats and DOC was convinced they were nothing more than "impressive-sized" wild cats. The chances of a mountain lion roaming free were virtually nil, Mr Murphy said.
There had been other reports of large bobcat-type animals being seen as far south as the Old Coach Road, near Mataura. Cromwell hunter Dick Marquand said wild cats that were good hunters could grow up to 14kg. "We saw a cat up from Lake Roxburgh we thought was a small goat." People sighting wild cats from a distance could be misled because of a lack of ground references to compare their size, Mr Marquand said.
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